Rain floods some areas of Houston, causes road closures, outages

Published 6:52 am, Thursday, July 12, 2012

Heavy rains in parts of the Greater Houston area Thursday morning led to predictable traffic snarls and caused several bayous and creek to swell past capacity.

The northwest portion of the city felt the brunt of the storm with law enforcement officials reporting parts of the North Eldridge Parkway closed to vehicles with about five inches of rain falling in the Cypress Creek area near Grant Road. A flash-flood warning by the National Weather Service for that area is in effect until 4 p.m.

In addition to Cypress Creek, Harris County Flood Control said the areas from FM 528 to FM 249, Little Cypress Creek, South Mayde Creek and Willow Creek were under the greatest threat of flooding.

Other problem spots for travelers include San Jacinto at Tuam, Carolyn at Wheeler, I-45 at Highway 105 near Conroe, Tomball on Zion, I-10 at East Lockwood and FM 1488 at Community Drive. Several streets in downtown were temporarily closed.

Most of the area within the Loop received between 1.5 and 2.5 inches of rain, according to Flood Control.

The storms caused about 9,300 Centerpoint customers lost power in the Houston area.

Texas New Mexico Power informed League City officials that there are roughly 430 people without power in the Victory Lakes area and a small outage along Highway 3.

Pearland commuters heading north on State Highway 288 ran into delays due to a major accident just south of the 610 loop.

No significant flooding or road closures were reported in Friendswood, Pearland or the Clear Lake area as of midday.